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Indonesian police have made one of the largest online gambling arrests in the country after raiding a West Jakarta building tied to dozens of betting websites.
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Indonesia has widened its fight against foreign-run digital crime after police raided a commercial building in West Jakarta and arrested 321 foreign nationals linked to an alleged online gambling network.
The operation allegedly served overseas bettors through at least 75 websites. Police said the group had worked from the site for around two months, with teams handling customer service, telemarketing, and finance.
The detainees included 228 Vietnamese nationals and 57 Chinese nationals. Others came from Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia, and Cambodia. By Saturday, police had named 275 detainees as suspects, while questioning continued for the rest.
Brigadier General Wira Satya Triputra, director of general crimes at the Indonesian National Police, said officers caught the group during the raid. He said:
“We arrested the suspects in the act while they were carrying out activities related to online gambling.”
Police seized cash in several currencies, safes, laptops, phones, passports, and other equipment. Investigators said digital records and marketing files showed the betting sites mainly targeted users outside Indonesia.
“We found allegations of organized gambling activities involving foreign nationals from various countries,” Triputra said.
Authorities also found visa violations. Police said many suspects entered Indonesia on short-term visitor visas before overstaying and working for the network. Charges could bring prison terms of up to nine years and fines of up to 2 billion rupiah, or about $116,000.
Untung Widyatmoko, secretary of the Interpol bureau of Indonesia, said enforcement in nearby countries had already pushed some operators toward Indonesia. He said:
“After enforcement measures in Cambodia, we started to see a shift toward Indonesia, and that was something we anticipated.”
Online gambling remains illegal in Indonesia, the world most populous Muslim-majority country. The Asian Racing Federation estimates illegal betting in Asia at $425 billion per year.
The Jakarta case follows more foreign-linked cybercrime arrests across Indonesia. Authorities recently detained about 210 foreign nationals in Batam over suspected online investment fraud, 44 Japanese and Chinese nationals in Surabaya over an alleged scam operation, 16 suspects in Sukabumi, and 26 alleged online scammers in Bali who were later deported.